1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for determining any inclusion relation between two sets of parallel multiple ladder-structured data. A set of parallel multiple ladder-structured data here means a set of data having a structure comprising a plurality of longitudinal bars and a plurality of lateral bars spanning the space between any two of these longitudinal bars.
2. Description of the Related Art
A message sequence diagram illustrating the exchange of messages between a plurality of subsystems and an event trace diagram showing the flows of events between a plurality of objects are examples of the aforementioned parallel multiple ladder-structured data consisting of a plurality of longitudinal bars and a plurality of lateral bars spanning the space between any two of these longitudinal bars.
Regarding any two sets of such parallel multiple ladder-structured data, it may have to be determined whether one set of parallel multiple ladder-structured data includes the other set. For instance, in checking whether or not prescribed messages are exchanged between a plurality of subsystems, it is necessary to detect only the noted messages out of the actual message sequence which also includes messages unrelated to the noted ones, and processing of this detection corresponds to the aforementioned determination of any inclusion relation between two sets of parallel multiple ladder-structured data.
To date, there has been no efficient method to check the presence or absence of any inclusion relation between two sets of parallel multiple ladder-structured data.
An object of the present invention is to improve the efficiency of determination of any inclusion relation between two sets of parallel multiple ladder-structured data.
More specifically, the object is to make it possible to efficiently detect, when it is to be checked whether or not prescribed messages are exchanged between a plurality of subsystems, only the noted messages out of the actual message sequence which also includes messages unrelated to the noted ones.
The object further is to make it possible to efficiently detect, when it is to be checked whether or not there are flows of prescribed events between a plurality of objects, only the noted events out of the actual event trace which also includes events unrelated to the noted ones.